This invention relates generally to technical plans for manufacturing and other processes and more particularly to automatically constructing such technical plans.
In providing products or services, there are typically many requirements that must be met to produce products and services that meet expectations. Some examples of such requirements include specification requirements that apply to component manufacture or repair, standard design requirements that apply to a specific design activity, and quality requirements that apply to a specific manufacturing or repair process.
To insure that a process (be it a manufacturing, repair or similar process) as practiced conforms to the applicable requirements, engineering specifications often require that a technical plan be made for the process. A technical plan is an overview of a process that sets forth what the process is, how it will be performed, what quality controls will be used, and how various requirements from the drawings and/or specification will be met.
Currently, a user must manually develop a technical plan for each process. However, the quantity and quality of information provided is generally not standardized among users, and individual users tend to develop unique formats. This can result in variability wherein some technical plans are incomplete or otherwise insufficient. Variability in technical plans can be particularly troublesome where an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) procures components manufactured by various suppliers. In this case, the supplier of a particular part will typically generate a proposed technical plan that is submitted to the OEM for review. The OEM will either approve the technical plan as submitted or request changes until a final technical plan is developed. Because suppliers differ in approach to writing technical plans, many reviews and revisions are usually needed before a final technical plan is accepted. The current approach thus results in lost productivity and increased costs.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a system and method of developing technical plans that avoid the problems of the current approach.
The above-mentioned need is met by the present invention, which provides a system and method of using at least one computer to construct a technical plan for a specific process. The invention includes providing a rule-based logic model for the specific process and inputting data relating to the specific process. The data is compared to the logic model to identify exceptions in the data to rules in the logic model. The data are formatted into a technical plan that includes the exceptions. The technical plan is then outputted for review.
The present invention and its advantages over the prior art will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and the appended claims with reference to the accompanying drawings.